10 new GMOs in the EU for food/feed use
The European Commission last week approved 10 new Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the EU for food/feed use, seven renewals of existing authorisations, and authorised importation of two GMO cut flowers (carnations, not for food or feed).
These GMOs had gone through a full authorisation procedure, including a favourable scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The authorisation decisions do not cover cultivation.
The new GMOs, which will be added to the existing list of 58 authorised in the EU for food and feed, include one maize, five soybeans, an oilseed rape, and three cottons.
Their approval has been welcomed by feed cereal and oilseed trade groups, who had long argued that delays in approvals put at risk entire shipments of commodities for food and feed. COPA-COGECA, representing EU farmers and their co-ops, said the approvals should help prevent animal feed market disruption.
However, the EU animal feed industry reacted violently to an accompanying European Commission proposal for nationalisation of GM crop imports for food and feed use. The proposal to allow individual Member States ban food and feed use of EU-authorised GMOs will go to the European Parliament for discussion, and to member states for final approval.
It could trigger a meltdown of the European livestock economy, with massive job losses and a complete brake to investments, warned COCERAL, FEDIOL and FEFAC, representing the commodity trade, oil crushing, and compound feed industries.
They called on the EU Council and the European Parliament to block the proposal. They warned, âAny application of the envisaged GM crop use ban by Member States would lead to an irreversible loss of competitiveness in the EU livestock sector, thus destroying hundreda or thousands of jobs, due to farm foreclosures and shutdown of processing plants, mostly in rural areas with limited job alternatives.â
They said the EU depends for 75% of protein-rich feed ingredients on the world markets, with soybean meal accounting for 30-35 million tonnes annually, with no viable alternative.
âEU livestock farmers in âopt-outâ countries will be the first victims of the new proposal, by facing significant cost increases when losing access to vital imports of protein-rich ingredients.â said Ruud Tijssens, President of FEFAC, representing the the European compound feed industry.
âInstead of guaranteeing legal certainty to operators and the right to choose for farmers and consumers, the Commission is destroying the most valuable asset of its common policy, the single market, which has provided jobs and prosperity to millions of EU citizens,â said Paul Della Tolla, President of COCERAL , which represents the EU trade in cereals, rice, feedstuffs, oilseeds, olive oil, oils and fats and agro-supply.
Speaking on behalf of EU food and feed chain partners, Pekka Pesonen, Copa-Cogeca Secretary General, said, âIt will seriously threaten the internal market for food and feed products, causing substantial job losses and lower investment in the agri-food chain in âopt-outâ countries. This would cause serious distortions of competition for all EU agri-food chain partnersâ.
There was also a sharp US response to the EU plan to allow member states individually decide whether to allow import of GM foods and animal feed, with US grain industry groups saying it breaches the EUâs cardinal rule that it is a single market where products can circulate freely.
âWe are very disappointed by todayâs announcement of a regulatory proposal that appears hard to reconcile with the EUâs international obligations,â said US Trade Representative Michael Froman.
The EU opt-out proposal would allow member states opposed to GMOs to cite grounds outside health and safety, such as social or environmental impact, for banning them.
But countries such as Spain, which already grow GMOs and want more, would no longer be stymied by opponents such as France.
